


On Ice, I'm Home (Bonus #1)

by BreeTaylor



Series: On Ice, I'm Home [2]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Backstory, Gen, Prequel, light mentions of rape and non-con sex/abuse, michael and ray are bffs, nothing graphic but just in case
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-07
Packaged: 2018-05-12 09:05:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5660662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BreeTaylor/pseuds/BreeTaylor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It'd always been Michael and Ray. They were best friends. They helped each other through everything. Michael wasn't sure if he was ready to let that go. (This is a prequel of sorts for On Ice, I'm Home touching on Michael and Ray's backstory: how they met, became friends, what happened with Ray's old coach, and how they ended up in Austin, TX)</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Ice, I'm Home (Bonus #1)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to be writing a few side-pieces for On Ice, I'm home for stuff that doesn't quite fit into the overarching plot. This is the first of those because I don't really go into detail about how important Michael and Ray's friendship is in the actual story.

Michael Jones and Ray Narvaez Jr. had been close to inseparable since the age of ten. At that point, Ray was just starting to get good at Figure Skating, and Michael hadn’t ever stepped a foot on the ice. The fact they even met was a miracle. Fate decided that Michael’s mother would take him to the rink in NYC on the day that Ray managed to convince his mom to go back for a “fun skate”. If they hadn’t both been there that day, they would have never met. But they were there, and as soon as Michael saw Ray skate he knew that he wanted to learn.  

Now Ray had never been overly confident or outspoken, and in that way Michael was the complete opposite. He had no problems storming up to Ray (or, rather, stumbling his way over on unsteady feet as his mother panicked from behind him) and demanding to be taught how to “not look like a complete idiot”. Ray didn’t know what to think of him and his boldness, but he admired that Michael wanted to learn. So he taught.

Their mothers, thankfully, got along really well. As a result, Michael was able to come up from Jersey most weekends. They would practice skating on Saturday, he would spend the night, and they’d spend most of Sunday playing video games together. They talked almost constantly via the phone (because sadly texting wasn’t really a thing yet).

Michael was never really interested in learning anything past the basic one-foot spin, but their friendship only grew stronger. Eventually Michael started to come down by himself, and when Ray started competing and stopped having the free time to hang out with Michael, he just started watching.

Michael was at every competition—more than even Ray’s mother. When Ray started traveling farther away, he would watch at home eagerly from the edge of the couch. He believed in Ray more than Ray believed in himself, and was a huge aid in him going professional. At least, _more_ professional.

Ray never believed he could skate for a living, and it was Michael who spurred him forward. It was Michael who helped him find his first coach in New York, and he was the first person Ray admitted his desires to. Which is why Michael always kept him on track. Because he knew that it was what Ray wanted more than anything, even if he sometimes forgot.

Michael didn’t notice when Ray started sleeping with his coach. Michael didn’t notice the hickeys or bruises that Ray tried to hide. He didn’t question it when Ray blamed it all on the ice. He didn’t notice the way his coach looked at him, or how he would always drive Ray home but would never pick him up. He didn’t notice any of that until long after it was too late.

Michael _did_ notice when Ray started to draw in on himself. He noticed when he started dreading skating, when he _begged_ Michael to fake plans after his practices so his coach wouldn’t drive him home. He noticed how tired Ray looked, and how he jumped whenever his coach touched him.

Michael was the one that Ray opened up to. Michael was the one who had to deal with Ray sobbing into his shoulder as he explained that his coach—a 35-year-old man—had talked him into sex. He had to look at the bruises the bastard left on Ray’s skin as he roughly shoved him around. He had to convince Ray that it wasn’t his fault, that the asshole took advantage of him.

Michael had to take Ray to the police, and then to the hospital to gather evidence. Michael had to tell Mrs. Narvaez exactly what her son had been doing, exactly what he’d been forced into, and then he’d had to deal with her crying into his shoulder as well. They had been 16, and Michael had to sit next to Ray as he went to court to get the guy charged with assault, rape, and pedophilia.

After that, Michael had to put Ray back together. He had to help him find his love of skating again, had to help him disassociate the negative memories from the sport he held so dear. That was when Michael started to learn to cook. He would show up every day with something delicious for Ray and him to share, and then he’d help him skate.

It was Michael who found Burnie in Austin. It was Michael that convinced Ray he was more than ready to skate professionally again, and that he could only take ‘lessons’ at the local rink for so long. It was Michael that convinced Burnie to up and move himself to New York to start training Ray. He attended every competition, no matter the distance.

Michael and Ray were truly inseparable after that. They spent every weekend together at the very least. Michael was simply not without Ray, and vice versa. They were each other’s prom dates, and they both attended the other’s graduation (and teared up as they watched the other walk across the stage).

It was Michael who convinced their parents that they would be okay in Austin on their own even though they were only 18. It was him that found their apartment, and him who helped Ray adapt to the change. Michael was there for Ray through everything. Though that’s not to say Ray wasn’t by his side as well.

Ray was the reason why Michael graduated High School. When Michael was on the verge of dropping out so he could move closer to Ray after the coach scenario, he managed to calm him down and convince him they’d be okay for another year and a half. Ray was always there to keep his head on straight.

When they moved to Austin, Ray was the one who convinced Michael to attend culinary school. He was the one who single-handedly convinced Burnie to add a kitchen to the rink for the sole purpose of Michael having a job, and he was the one who constantly told Michael to follow his dreams, too.

Michael and Ray were always together because they were _MichaelandRay_. They’d been through everything together, and though sometimes Ray felt like Michael was forced to deal with a lot more of his crap, their relationship was one based on mutual need. They needed each other because together they did great things. Together they managed to accomplish whatever they put their minds to.

As Michael watched Ryan come into the picture, things got tough. Ryan was Ray’s coach. He was older, he was attractive, and he was well spoken. He couldn’t help but see a younger, 16-year-old Ray being coerced into doing things he was uncomfortable with. He couldn’t help but remember as Ray cried and shook and begged Michael to make it all go away. Ray said they weren’t involved, but Michael knew better. Michael knew Ray, and he knew what it looked like when Ray was sleeping with someone.

When they started spending more time together, Michael couldn’t help but feel jealous. Ray looked at Ryan like he was the most amazing thing in the world, and Ryan threw it right back at him. They were happy, if not slightly dysfunctional, and Michael could feel himself getting pushed away. Ray didn’t know he was doing it, but slowly he started spending all his time with Ryan.

Michael couldn’t understand how Ray thought they _didn’t_ know that they were sleeping together with the amount of time he spent at Ryan’s house (and the amount of Ryan’s clothes that were quickly finding their way into the laundry basket). He was glad that Ray was happy, but couldn’t help wonder what that would mean for them.

They were Michael and Ray, but what would happen when it became Ryan and Ray? They’d been best friends for so long, there through everything, that Michael wasn’t sure if he knew how to deal with letting Ray go.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if these one-off side pieces are something y'all want to see more of! They're nice to write when I hit a block in the actual story. (:


End file.
